CMS content entry

What CMS content entry is

CMS content entry is the job of taking an approved piece of writing, usually a document or an email, and turning it into a live page on your website that looks like the rest of the site. That means the right template, headings at the right level, images sized and described, links added in both directions, the title and description fields filled in, and a check on a phone before it goes live.

It is not web development, and it is not writing. If the page needs the site's code or design changed to hold it, that is web development, which I bring in and manage. If the words are not written yet, that is a blog post or a service page, and entry is included in the price of those.

When you need one

You have finished content and no one to enter it. A writer has delivered ten pages, or you have written them yourself, and they are sitting in a folder because the last time someone put a page into the site it came out with three font sizes and a broken image. Or your one staff member who knew how has left. Or entering a page takes you two hours that should be spent on customers.

You do not need this if your site changes rarely and you have a developer on a maintenance contract who already does it. And if you have a capable staff member who is simply nervous of the system, CMS training is a better buy: a half day of it and they will not need me.

What goes in it

Every piece goes through the same checklist, in the same order, so the tenth page comes out the same as the first.

• Template and layout. The page uses the same template as its neighbours, with the same spacing, heading styles and calls to action, so a reader cannot tell which pages were entered by whom.
• Headings. One H1, then H2 and H3 in order, matching the structure the writer intended, with no headings used as decoration.
• Images. Resized so the page loads quickly, named sensibly, with alt text that describes what the picture shows.
• Links. The links the writer marked, plus links from at least two existing pages to the new one so it is not orphaned.
• Metadata. The page title, the description, the address slug, the category and the tags, all filled in rather than left to whatever the system generates.
• Scheduling. Set to publish on the agreed date and time, or published immediately if that is what you asked for.
• The check. The live page opened on a phone and on a desktop, every link clicked, every image confirmed, and the spelling read once more cold.

I work in WordPress, Shopify and Squarespace routinely, and in Wix, Webflow and most others after a short look. If the site is something unusual, I say so on the call rather than discover it on the first page.

What you get

Live pages. Each one entered, checked and either published or scheduled, with the address sent to you the day it goes live.

An entry log. One spreadsheet, one row per piece: the address, the date published, the title and description used, and any note about something I changed or could not do. It becomes the start of your content inventory.

A formatting note. After the first batch, a one-page note recording the conventions used on your site, such as image sizes, heading rules and category names, so anyone who enters a page after me does it the same way.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A family-run flooring showroom has commissioned fourteen product-category pages and six buying guides from a writer. The documents have been in a shared folder for five weeks. The owner's daughter entered one guide, spent an evening on it, and the images came out stretched.

The twenty pieces are entered over two weeks. Each product page goes on the product template with a gallery of six images from the showroom's own photo library, sized and described. Each guide goes on the article template with a link to the two product pages it discusses, and each of those product pages gets a link back to the guide. Titles and descriptions are written from the first paragraph of each piece. The pages are scheduled to go live two at a time over ten days rather than all at once. The daughter gets the formatting note and a copy of the log, and she enters the twenty-first page herself.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What system you run, how many pieces there are, and what usually goes wrong. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Per piece for a one-off batch, or per month for ongoing entry, agreed before anything starts.
3. Access. You create an editor account for me on the site, with no more permissions than the job needs, and send the finished pieces and images.
4. The first page. One page entered and sent to you to confirm the layout, before the rest are done the same way.
5. The batch. Two to four pieces a day for a one-off batch; within two working days of receipt for ongoing work.
6. The log. Sent when the batch is complete, or monthly for ongoing work.

What it costs

Quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on how many pieces there are, how many images each carries, whether the site already has a clean template for the page type, and whether you want it as a one-off batch or a standing monthly arrangement. Ongoing entry is usually folded into the Content Engine on the pricing page rather than sold alone.

What happens next

Once the backlog is in, most businesses either keep a small monthly arrangement for whatever the writer delivers next, or take it in-house with a half day of CMS training. If the entry log shows pages that overlap or contradict each other, that is a sign the site is due a content audit. And once pages are going in steadily, monthly reporting tells you which of them are earning their place.